Category Archives: Air transport

Catastrophic failure of Ukraine jet in Iran suggests missile strike

Posted on by

Experts say debris fragments and sudden loss of fail-safe systems point to missile

To civil aviation professionals, including pilots, engineers and former crash investigators, there was something immediately puzzling about the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet that fell burning out of the sky minutes after takeoff from Tehran.

Conversation on forums, and in a risk assessment that was rapidly produced by the organisations OpsGroup, pointed to the sudden and catastrophic nature of the event, including the loss of both communications and tracking systems.

Continue reading...

Iran says it will not give black box from crashed airliner to Boeing

Posted on by

Leaders of Ukraine and Canada vow to find cause of crash that killed dozens of their citizens

Iran’s aviation authority has said it will not hand over flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane that crashed moments after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew onboard, either to the aircraft’s manufacturer or US aviation authorities.

The statement was issued on Wednesday as the leaders of Ukraine and Canada, from which dozens of citizens died, vowed to identify the cause of the crash amid contradictory statements and swirling speculation.

Continue reading...

Ukraine passenger plane crashes in Iran, killing 176 people – video report

Posted on by

A passenger plane bound for Kyiv has crashed close to Tehran's main international airport, killing 176 people. Video circulated by Iranian news agencies appears to show the Boeing 737-800 bursting into flame minutes after takeoff and plummeting to earth. There was no early indication the crash was linked to Iran's Wednesday morning missile strikes on bases in Iraq hosting US and coalition troops

Continue reading...

Iran plane crash: footage appears to show burning wreckage – video

Posted on by

Footage released by Iran Press TV appears to show burning wreckage from moments after a Ukrainian passenger jet crashed near Tehran.
The Ukrainian airliner, which had 176 people onboard, crashed soon after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport. Iran's Red Crescent said there was no chance of finding survivors

Continue reading...

Uber reveals plans for flying taxi to bypass road traffic congestion

Posted on by

Aerial ridesharing would allow for a pilot and three passengers at speeds of up to 180mph

Uber has unveiled plans for a flying taxi at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The ride-sharing company on Tuesday showed off a full-size mock-up of the electric plane concept vehicle created with South Korean carmaker Hyundai, as it seeks to fly above traffic rather than add to it.

Uber wants to offer aerial ridesharing, allowing a pilot and three passengers to take city trips of up to 60 miles at a speed of up to 180mph. Resembling a winged helicopter and featuring four propellers, Uber and Hyundai joined forces to design a personal air vehicle, or PAV, which can take off and land vertically.

Continue reading...

Chilean air force chief says cause of Antarctic plane crash may never be known

Posted on by

Investigators may never recover enough wreckage to know why the Hercules crashed, killing 38

The commander-in-chief of the Chilean air force has said that the struggle to recover the remains of a Hercules that crashed en route to the Antarctic two weeks ago could make it difficult to ever determine what happened to the plane.

The Hercules C-130 cargo plane, which was carrying 17 crew and 21 passengers, disappeared shortly after taking off on 9 December from the southern city of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia.

Continue reading...

‘Handing control away’: UK’s sale of Cobham defence firm to US company decried

Posted on by

Founding family criticises approval of £4bn deal despite national security concerns

The government has been accused of handing control away after it approved a US private equity firm’s £4bn takeover of the UK defence company Cobham despite national security concerns.

The deal had been delayed since mid-2019 after fears were raised that Advent International’s acquisition could undermine the country’s security.

Continue reading...

Military police remove climate protesters from Schiphol airport

Posted on by

Hundreds of demonstrators call for international hub in Amsterdam to curb emissions

Dutch military police have begun forcibly removing a group of climate protesters at Schiphol airport, in Amsterdam, after they refused to leave during a demonstration organised by Greenpeace.

Hundreds of protesters attended the demonstration on Saturday calling on the international air hub to adopt a plan to curb greenhouse emissions. The group had been allowed to protest outside the building only, but they broke that restriction, arguing that citizens’ rights to peaceful protest should not be restricted.

Continue reading...

FAA let Boeing 737 Max continue to fly even as review found serious crash risk

Posted on by

Analysis from US regulators found plane could have averaged a fatal crash about every two to three years without design changes

US regulators allowed Boeing’s 737 Max to keep flying even after their own analysis found the plane could have averaged one fatal crash about every two or three years without intervention.

According to a report dated a month after a Lion Air 737 Max crashed in October 2018, killing 189 people, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded the plane could become involved in more fatal crashes without design changes.

Continue reading...

World’s first fully electric commercial aircraft takes flight in Canada

Posted on by

Company hails start of the ‘electric aviation age’ after 15-minute test flight in Vancouver

The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft has taken its inaugural test flight, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver and flying for 15 minutes.

“This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work,” said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Australian engineering firm magniX.

Continue reading...

Sonic boom: loud bang that shook London caused by supersonic fighter jets

Posted on by

Typhoon jets scrambled in response to plane that was not answering air traffic control

A huge bang heard across London and in Hertfordshire just after 4am on Sunday was caused by RAF jets going supersonic, the Met and the MoD said.

“Two Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were scrambled at 0409 this morning, as part of the UK’s Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) procedures, after an aircraft lost communications in UK airspace,” said the Ministry of Defence. “The aircraft was intercepted and its communications were subsequently re-established. The Typhoons are returning to their base.”

Continue reading...

‘We saw a double sunrise’: London-Sydney flight touches down after 19 hours

Posted on by

Qantas Dreamliner lands as part of trial for what would be the longest commercial route

A Qantas flight from London to Sydney has touched down safely after 19 hours and 19 minutes, as part of a trial for what would be the world’s longest-ever commercial route.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner took off on Thursday morning UK time and landed in Sydney at lunchtime on Friday. “We saw a double sunrise,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said after stepping off the flight. Qantas named the effort “Project Sunrise” after the airline’s endurance flights during the second world war.

Continue reading...

Aeroflot fails to see funny side of flier’s fat-cat swap

Posted on by

Airline scratches out traveller’s air miles after he used feline double to flout cabin rules

The Russian airline Aeroflot has stripped a passenger of his air miles after he boasted online of sneaking his overweight cat onboard by switching him for a slimmer cat during check-in.

Mikhail Galin wrote in a Facebook post last week that his cat Viktor was judged too fat to be taken into the passenger cabin during a layover in Moscow on a trip from Latvia to his home in Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia.

Continue reading...

Boeing 737 Max jets could fly again by January with safety checks under way

Posted on by

World’s biggest planemaker hopes aviation authorities will soon approve plane’s flight control software

Boeing said on Monday it could have its fleet of 737 Max jets flying again by January as safety checks on the aircraft’s troubled flight software reach completion. The planes were grounded in March in the wake of two fatal crashes in the space of five months that killed 346 people.

The world’s biggest planemaker said it hoped the Federal Aviation Administration would approve certification of the plane’s flight control software before the end of the year. A fault with the plane’s anti-stall mechanism is believed to have caused the Lionair crash in Indonesia last October and then the Ethiopian Airlines disaster in March.

Continue reading...

Qantas 737 cracks: airline pulls three Boeing planes from service

Posted on by

Aircraft grounded after hairline cracks found between wing and fuselage

Qantas has pulled three of its Boeing 737 planes from service after finding hairline cracks but have said they will not ground all 737s they fly.

Three planes have now been affected by cracks in the “pickle fork” structure between the wing and the fuselage. On Thursday, the aircraft engineers union said the airline should ground the entire 737 fleet.

Continue reading...

Super-rich fuelling growing demand for private jets, report finds

Posted on by

Growth centred in US and China, with slowdown in Sweden attributed to Greta Thunberg

Almost 8,000 new private jets are expected to be bought by multinational companies and the super-rich over the next decade, each of which will burn 40 times as much carbon per passenger as regular commercial flights, according to a report by aviation firm Honeywell Aerospace.

About 690 new business jets are expected to take to the skies in 2019, a 9% increase on 2018, as businesses and the wealthy refresh their fleets with fancy new models released by three of the world’s biggest private jet manufacturers.

Continue reading...

New Zealand’s airspace shuts down after fire alarm in radar centre

Posted on by

Planes briefly grounded across the country over ‘fault with main air traffic system’

A fire alarm in New Zealand’s radar centre effectively shut down the country’s airspace, halting planes from taking off for a short time on Monday afternoon.

Planes were stranded on the tarmac and landings were being “managed” by Airways NZ after the country’s navigation service provider confirmed “a fault with our main air traffic system”.

Continue reading...

Zaha Hadid’s massive ‘starfish’ airport opens in Beijing

Posted on by

Daxing international, said to be world’s largest single-building terminal, to handle 72m passengers

China has opened a vast, multibillion-dollar airport in the country’s capital, in the run-up to a major political anniversary.

Less than five years after construction began, the 450bn yuan (£50bn) Daxing international airport was officially opened on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.

Continue reading...

UK ministers accused of sealing Thomas Cook’s fate

Posted on by

Offers from Spain and Turkey to save firm reportedly had no support from Westminster

The government has been accused of sealing Thomas Cook’s fate, as claims emerged that the Spanish and Turkish governments had offered to help save the stricken tour operator, only for the deal to disintegrate due to a lack of support in Westminster.

As recriminations flew, government-chartered aircraft began flying 150,000 stranded Thomas Cook customers back to the UK after the 178-year-old tour operator collapsed into liquidation in the early hours of Monday under the weight of its debts.

Continue reading...

Thomas Cook travel chaos: insolvency leaves 150,000 stranded on holidays – live updates

Posted on by

A huge repatriation effort has begun after company ceases trading with immediate effect, causing flights to be cancelled

I’m going to hand over to my colleague Graeme Wearden now. Thanks for following along through the early hours.

A few reports have come through that Thomas Cook staff were not notified by the company of the trouble that the company was in. One said he found out the company had gone bust by reading media reports today. Another, whose family member worked for Thomas Cook, said the company had been telling staff up until yesterday that reports of financial distress had been inflated by the press.

If you know more, please get in touch: kate.lyons@theguardian.com

Continue reading...